Surrounded by fans and skeptics, grizzled director J.J. "Jake" Hannaford returns from years abroad in Europe to a changed Hollywood, where he attempts to make his innovative comeback film. This film was started in 1970 but never completed during Welles lifetime.

A boy with an unhealthy and pathological attachment to his mother becomes increasingly jealous of the new man in her life. After his mother remarries, his rage and misery overwhelm him and he plots to kill his stepfather.